Athletic News

BOWLING

GIRLS BOWLING

Big dreams and life lessons, combined with a close-knit atmosphere, are what propelled the varsity girls bowling team to a conference win and onto the district competition this year. Coach James Bowling, who is entering his third year as the varsity girl’s coach and fifth year coaching at Hoban, has grown the program from just four returning bowlers to a full and thriving team of 17.

Although the team dominates in their conference, the year was not without challenges for both the coaches and bowlers.

“In bowling, it’s a game where knowledge is more important than physical skills at times,” Bowling said. “When we leave our conference to compete in tournaments across Northeast Ohio, we have so many near misses. We would come close to winning many times, but just not make it in the end. That becomes a challenge for managing emotions and energy, but the girls always picked themselves up and pressed on.”

Bowling honed in on three life lessons that he believes are integral to the team’s success – dealing with adversity and disappointment, communication with teammates and coaches and realizing that it is more important to be a good person than to win. “In the end, what makes you who you are is not what you do on the lanes, but who you are as a person,” Bowling said. “This is a very close team and they are all very supportive of each other. I couldn’t ask for a better group of young ladies and families.”

Those lessons in character and support were put on full display at the district championship in March. Bowling recounts the emotional moments when the team found out that they had missed qualifying for states by just 35 pins – a 1 percentage point margin.

“At districts there was an area where they projected the scores and after all of our games it wasn’t quite clear where we were going to end up,” Bowling said. “The team went into the waiting area and locked arms and I joined them. Then, we found out we had come up short. The whole area emptied out except for our team. For about 20 minutes, the emotions of the moment came out and the girls took turns saying how they felt, sharing their grief and also building each other back up because they had truly bowled very well. It was a hard time and rough moment, but they are a great team and I made sure they knew this is the best the girls bowling team has ever done at Hoban and they had a lot to be proud of.”

Moving forward, the outlook for the program is strong. The varsity team is losing only three graduating seniors this year and has many up-and-coming leaders. Junior Carly Jones made two all-tournament teams this year and set a new Hoban record with a two-game score of 470. She also bowled 15 games with a score over 200. Additionally, for the first time in Hoban history, the five starting bowlers were all named to the all-conference team.

Bowling looks forward to continued success with rising leaders on the team, and is focusing on the growth of the program while continuing to foster positive skill building and team morale.

BOYS BOWLING

The boys varsity bowling team, coached by Dennis Holodnak, had a successful season this year with nine wins and one loss in conference play.

“The culture of our team was a close knit group,” Holodnak said. “They tried to help each other with how to read the lanes and the oil pattern on the lanes. Our goal was to make states as a team and to bowl the best that each bowler could. The boys gave their very best and that’s all a coach can ask for.” Senior Joseph Bee led the team by setting a two-game series record for Hoban with a score of 490. Additionally, he made two all-tournament teams and individually qualified for the district competition.

“Joseph exhibited outstanding leadership this year,” Holodnak said. “He worked with his teammates to help them make adjustments to score higher and he kept the team morale high. Joseph was a joy to work with for the past four years and earned well-deserved respect from his coaches and teammates.”

Sophomore Joseph Banister, a returning varsity player for next year, has learned many life lessons by participating in bowling.

“The greatest thing I’ve learned from bowling is that as a team, we have to manage our anger and that voice in our head when we don’t do as well as we had hoped,” Banister said. “We have to push that out of the way and move on. We strive to do our best and if we make a mistake we brush it off and do better next time.”

With five seniors graduating this year, next year’s team is going to be young, but Holodnak is confident that the team’s competitive aspect will remain with four returning varsity players and a supportive team culture.

HOBAN DANCE TEAM WINS FOURTH STATE TITLE IN THREE YEARS

After coming off of a double state championship win in 2021, Head Dance Coach Erin Smith and Assistant Coaches Brooke Smith and Destiney Vaughn ’18, began the 2022 season with a team survey that clarified each student-athlete’s goals and aspirations for the season ahead.

“This year’s team was a very diverse and hardworking group of dancers,” Smith said. “At the beginning of the season, I asked them what their goals were and what they wanted to achieve by being on the dance team. They all answered that they wanted to go to a state competition and they wanted to win. So, I told them to get prepared to work very hard.”

Smith didn’t want her team to feel as if they had to live in the shadow of 2021’s double wins. This year’s team had no seniors and only two returning dancers for the state competition. They felt as if they were underdogs before the season even began. What she thought was going to be a building year for the team ended up being one of incredible teamwork, motivation and success.

“Winning states was our primary goal, but getting the girls to work together instead of against each other was another big milestone we achieved,” Smith said. “The dancers come from all different backgrounds - different studios and different training. Molding them into one cohesive unit was important for team morale and focus. This team was not competitive against each other, but instead–competitive together for a common purpose.”

That common purpose helped successfully propel the team through summer workouts with Hoban strength and conditioning, intense practice schedules, the state qualifier competition in January and ultimately–a win at the state championships on February 26. With no returning seniors on the team, underclassmen had to step into leadership roles–and they did just that. “This season has taught me a lot about how to go about life,” junior Sofia DeCola said. “There were several tough practices where we wanted to give up. Winning the state championship this year was not easy and there were several teams coming in just to beat us and prey on what they thought were our weaknesses. This season taught us all how to put away our differences to focus on doing what we love while being the best at it. We all helped one another grow, and we all overcame several challenges.”

Freshman Sevanna Hamad also took on a leadership role this year on the young team.

“Hoban dance team has a fun and exciting culture,” Hamad said. “The biggest lesson that stands out to me from this year is to always dance for the person next to you. In dance, we are taught to work as a team, almost as though we are each a piece of the body and we’re trying to come together as one. It is important to put in your best effort for the team and for your teammates.”

In the past three years, five student-athletes have continued on to dance at the collegiate level with two of those dancers receiving athletic scholarships. Following four state titles in three years, next season is already on everyone’s minds. For Smith, continuing to build the team is key.

“Our goal is to continue building and to keep working on skill building,” Smith said. “We aim to have choreography that is going to be really creative and will enhance the team’s performance qualities. Another objective we have is to keep team morale up while making sure everyone is working hard and having a positive attitude. My biggest goal as coach of this team is to keep developing the younger generation so that we can continue to build and succeed.”